Be Real-ly Outrageous on Valentine's Day

Chocolate Dream Cream, Sacred Chocolate, and Be Real

Valentine’s day is a wonderful excuse, if any were needed, to have a decadent feast of the greatest superfood on the planet – chocolate!  Let’s start with breakfast; how would you fancy a crunchy, chewy and delicious granola cereal smothered in a rich, thick, silky and extremely chocolatey smoothie and topped with super-sprinkles?  It’s a heavenly way to start the most romantic day of the year.

This breakfast idea uses Raw Living ‘Be Real’ cereal which is based on crunchy buckwheaties with various good things added, depending on which variety you choose.  I’ve tried both Be Happy (goji) and Be Good (the chocolate and mulberry version).  Both are delicious eaten simply with nut mylk of course, but this recipe would a great Valentine’s breakfast treat.  I also eat it sometimes when I want to feel full up to my eyes without feeling overstuffed, then not feel hungry for hours and hours.  You can get everything you need for this recipe at Raw Living.

Be Real-ly Outrageous

1-2 servings of Be-Real

1 recipe of Choc-Full Smoothie:

• 2 T of chia seeds soaked in 1 cup water
• 1 T cacao powder
• 1 T carob powder
• 1 T lucuma
• 1 T non-gm soy lecithin
• 1-2 T coconut butter, no need to melt
• 1 T cashew or macadamia nuts
• 1 T tocotrienols (optional but makes it extra creamy)
• 1-2 T raw honey/coconut nectar or other sweetener
• pinch pink salt (only about 1/8 t but vital!)
• 1 T maca (to be added after initial blending)
• 1 T bee pollen
• Other sprinkles if desired eg cacao nibs, goji berries, chopped raw chocolate bar

To a high speed blender, add all of the choc-full ingredients, except the maca.  If you don’t have a high speed blender, omit the cashew or macadamia nuts, and maybe use coconut milk instead to get the creaminess.  Add a little water and blend until smooth.  Add the maca and some more water (you’ll need about ¾ cup altogether but don’t use too much or the smoothie will be too runny) and blend again for 20 seconds.  Taste to check sweetening level.  Put your Be Real into one large or two smaller breakfast bowls and pour over the chocolate mixture.  Sprinkle with bee pollen and any other delicious things you have on hand, and spoon-feed to your beloved.

For a Valentine gift, one of Sacred Chocolate’s heart-shaped raw chocolate bars would be a delight.  If you have a girlfriend who loves chocolate but hates what it does to her thighs, this gift will get you big brownie points.  Raw chocolate has none of the hip-and-thigh plumping hazards of conventional chocolate because it doesn’t contain dairy products, refined sugar and hydrogenated fats.  It DOES have all of the taste and melt-in-the-mouth qualities we love about chocolate because it IS chocolate – it’s the real thing, just without the junk.  Sacred Chocolate has all the taste and meltiness big-time, and is wrapped in pretty foil and love.  The kind I tried, ‘India Sunset’ contains cardamom, curry and saffron, unusual flavourings for chocolate but I love it.  I couldn’t taste the curry, but the flowery scent of cardamom comes through and the other flavourings give this bar of really top-quality chocolate a hint of complex, exotic flavour.  Love it, love it, love it.

Another chocolate treat not to be missed on Valentine’s or any other time, includes Raw Living Chocolate Dream Cream.  This is a raw chocolate spread containing amazing superfoods like ashwagandha, reishi, he sho wou and gingko.  Its deep chocolate taste carries a hint of licorice and it isn’t cloyingly sweet.  It can be spread on bread, fruit, cookies or (as it says on the label) ‘a good friend.’  Come on, it is Valentine’s, after all.  In the photograph you can see I’ve plastered a healthy dollop onto raw oatmeal raisin cookies.  Dream Cream is rich, so putting this amount on a cookie makes quite a filling snack.  In raw food preparation, so many things have to be prepared fresh from scratch or thought about hours in advance for soaking that it feels like real luxury to have a jar of chocolate spread that I can just grab and smear onto whatever comes to hand for instant gratification.  Happy Valentine’s Day!